CockroachDB
Course Objectives:
Gain a comprehensive understanding of CockroachDB's distributed SQL architecture and how it achieves survivability, consistency, and scale.
Master the deployment, configuration, and day-to-day operation of CockroachDB clusters.
Confidently design schemas, optimize queries, and manage transactions in a distributed SQL environment.
Implement multi-region topologies, geo-partitioning, and resilience strategies for production workloads.
Apply security hardening, monitoring, and integration best practices for production-ready CockroachDB deployments.
Course Length: 3 Days
Course Structure:
Module 1: Architecture & Foundations
Introduction to CockroachDB
What CockroachDB is: a distributed SQL database built for survivability
Comparison landscape: CockroachDB vs. PostgreSQL, Spanner, YugabyteDB, TiDB
Use cases and when CockroachDB is the right fit
Core Architecture
Ranges, Raft consensus, leaseholders, and the distributed storage layer
The KV layer and how SQL maps onto it
Multi-active availability vs. traditional primary/replica models
Node communication, gossip protocol, and cluster membership
Installation, Configuration & Tooling
Deploying a local multi-node cluster (cockroach start, cockroach demo)
DB Console walkthrough: metrics, jobs, statements, sessions
CockroachDB's PostgreSQL wire-protocol compatibility — what works, what doesn't
SQL Dialect & Schema Design
SQL dialect specifics: SERIAL vs. UUID, sequences, hash-sharded indexes
Schema design fundamentals: choosing primary keys to avoid hotspots
Data types, constraints, and indexing strategies
Module 2: Distributed Operations & Data Engineering
Transactions & Consistency
Transaction model: serializable isolation by default
MVCC, read/write intents, transaction contention and retries
Follower reads, AS OF SYSTEM TIME, and stale read trade-offs
Query Optimization
EXPLAIN / EXPLAIN ANALYZE for query analysis
Index selection, statistics collection, and cost-based optimization
Common anti-patterns: sequential keys, cross-range transactions, implicit transactions
Multi-Region Topologies & Resilience
Replication zones and zone configurations
Geo-partitioned tables, regional by row, global tables
Multi-region cluster topologies: survival goals (zone vs. region)
Node decommissioning, rebalancing, and recovery
Backup, Restore & Change Data Capture
Full, incremental, and scheduled backups (BACKUP/RESTORE, cloud storage)
Restore strategies and point-in-time recovery
Changefeeds for CDC (Kafka, webhook, cloud pub/sub sinks)
Module 3: Operations, Security & Production Readiness
Security & Access Control
TLS/SSL configuration for node-to-node and client-to-node communication
Authentication methods: password, certificate, SCRAM, SSO/OIDC
Role-based access control (RBAC), grants, row-level security
Audit logging and encryption at rest
Monitoring & Troubleshooting
Key DB Console dashboards and metrics to monitor
Prometheus/Grafana integration and alerting strategies
Statement diagnostics, slow query identification, contention dashboards
Log analysis, debug zip, and working with Cockroach Labs support
Schema Migrations & Deployment Models
Online schema changes and how they differ from PostgreSQL
CockroachDB Serverless vs. Dedicated vs. Self-Hosted — when to use what
Application Integration Patterns
CockroachDB with ORMs (SQLAlchemy, GORM, Prisma)
Connection pooling and application-level retry logic
Integrating CockroachDB with CI/CD and infrastructure automation workflows